Americans find their ‘holy grail’ – in Britain
ONLY the second known parchment copy of the American Declaration of Independence has been found – in Britain.
Harvard University researchers discovered the document – which some experts regard as a ‘holy grail’ of American history – at the West Sussex Record Office in Chichester. It had been stored there since 1956 after it was donated by a local man who worked for a law firm. Experts were initially ‘very sceptical’ but have now verified its authenticity.
They believe it dates from the 1780s and was produced in New York or Philadelphia.
The only other 18th Century copy of the declaration is on display at the National Archives in Washington.
William Ewald, a legal historian at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, said that the find was the ‘discovery of a lifetime’.
‘Every 20 years or so, someone discovers an unknown copy of one of the newspaper printings,’ he added. ‘But a new formal parchment – how many people can say they found that?’
The researchers believe the document may have been given to the 3rd Duke of Richmond, a supporter of American independence, by the philosopher Thomas Paine, one of the US’s Founding Fathers.